Hog prices in Germany, the European Union’s biggest
producer, fell to 1.626 euros ($2.14) a kilogram (2.2 pounds)
from 1.676 euros last week, Damme, Germany-based ISN wrote in a
report on its website today. Italian prices dropped to 1.829
euros a kilogram from 1.975 euros. In Austria, they declined to
1.54 euros from 1.591 euros.

Demand from slaughter companies is “very modest,” ISN
wrote. “Even today traders and marketers are not getting clear
indications of how much will be slaughtered over the holidays
from some slaughter companies.”

Pork accounts for about half of the meat consumption in the
27-nation EU. Europeans will probably eat less of the meat this
year and next after prices rose and economies slowed, with per-capita consumption set to fall to 40.3 kilograms in 2013 from
41.2 kilograms in 2012, the bloc forecast in September.

In Spain, the EU’s second-largest pig producer, prices fell
for a ninth week to 1.733 euros a kilogram from 1.74 euros a
week ago. French prices dropped for a fourth week to 1.605 euros
a kilogram from 1.611 euros.

The cost of hogs also fell in Denmark, the Netherlands, and
Belgium, the report showed.